Knowledge diffusion in ERP development: The case of open source ERP downloads

Abstract

This paper reports on an investigation of challenges in enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) development. The investigation, conducted as interviews with executives at a major ERP software vendor, identified six challenges when developing future ERPs. The challenges are then related to a question of knowledge sharing in ERP development. The question is, can downloads of open source ERPs be seen as a knowledge sharing activity with the potential to decrease the gap between ERP developers and users of ERPs? From identified challenges and by discussing reasons for the high attention and the high numbers of download of open source ERPs, the article presents some conclusions that could act as input for future research. The paper aims at building a foundation for the basic question: In what way could knowledge sharing in ERP development be improved? The main conclusion is that challenges for future development of ERPs addressed by proprietary ERP software vendors could be one reason for the high attention among developers of open source ERPs. © 2008 International Federation for Information Processing.